Nyte: Chapter 30 - Lure

“Liz?” Quell whips around, looking for her in every direction. “Liz!”

For a moment I think I hear a returning call, broken words snatched up and tossed away by the wind. Quell scrambles up the back of Poppy for a better look. “Darian! Liz! Anyone!”

A gust of wind buffets against us, and Quell is nearly blown from Poppy’s back. He falls to her saddle, clutching the reins and hunching against the wind. I wait for the gust to pass, then grab Quell and pull him down. 

“We should use her as a windbreak,” I say, keeping close to the drake’s side. Or at least, a sand-break. “We have to get out of here.”

“Not without Liz!” he says, voice tight with panic. “What even happened? I couldn’t see anything! They were just gone! Are they—they have to be okay, right?” 

“They’ll be fine,” I say, hoping that’s the truth. “I don’t know what happened, but those four are a tough group. Liz will be safe with Darian, right?”

Quell nods, but his face is still pinched in fear. “Okay. Thanks.”

“Besides, if something ate them, there would have been blood everywhere; I would have smelled it.”

Quell looks horrified. “That’s significantly less comforting!”

“And we would have seen it if they’d gotten swallowed by a giant sandworm or something,” I add.

“Nye, please!”

“I’m saying they’re probably fine.”

“Just stop talking!” 

Quell rakes his fingers through his locks, grimacing against the sand. 

“Okay,” he says, letting out a breath. “Okay. You’re right. There’s nothing I can do, anyway. We just have to find shelter somewhere to wait out the storm.”

Good. I thought he was about to have a panic attack. I might be able to fight soldiers and wyverns and carnivorous cacti, but I can’t beat back sand and wind. We just need to keep our cool and wait for this to blow over. 

“I think Darian said she could see something ahead.” I gesture to where we’d last seen their group. “We should go that way. Maybe we’ll find what she did.”

“Yes,” Quell says. “Yes, of course. Maybe they’re just ahead of us, only a little out of sight! Come one, we should go quick, before they move any further away!”

Quell starts to strike out ahead of Poppy before I catch his cloak and haul him back. “Stay next to Poppy,” I repeat. “We have to stick together. Don’t let go.” I hand him her reins, and he reluctantly takes them. I get that he’s eager, and maybe desperate, but him and I getting separated as well is the last thing we need. 

Heads bowed against the storm, we move forward. What was once clay has been covered in sand, and though it doesn’t seem very deep, it causes us to slip and slide over the firm ground beneath. That, with the wind, belabors every step. I squint against the sand as it pelts against my face, but I can’t make out anything. Not rocks, not people, not shadowy forms. Whatever shelter Darian must have seen is too far away, or our field of view too restricted. We’d have to stumble over the top of it before we’d even notice it was there. Is searching for shelter our best bet, then? What if we’re only getting more lost in the storm? Maybe we could throw a canvas over the top of us and huddle against Poppy until it passes. 

“Nye?”

I freeze, whipping my head to the side. The wind howls, but nothing is there. Was that my imagination playing tricks on me? I stand there for a moment longer, peering into the shadowy storm. Nothing.

I start walking once more. 

“Nye!”

My heart skips a beat. This time the voice is distant but unmistakable. I spin around, searching for which direction the voice had come from. “Álvaro?” I call. “Álvaro! Where are you?”

Quell stops and turns back. “What is it?”

“My brother,” I say, looking around desperately. My heart squeezes in my chest. “I heard him. I know it was him!”

Quell squints through the dim. “I didn’t hear anything.” 

The storm shifts, and a curtain of sand parts, just for a moment. There, not thirty feet away, is the silhouette of my brother. 

“Álvaro!” I squeeze the strangled words from my throat, relief and pain and love all crashing through me in a desperate wave. I lurch toward him, tears prickling me eyes. “I’m here! I’m here.” 

“Nye, wait!” Quell calls. 

The sand closes around him once more, and I race ahead, desperate to not let him pass from sight. I can’t let him go now. I can’t—

My stomach lurches as I pitch forward in abrupt free-fall. The ground vanishes before me, and I’m falling. The sand beneath my feet is gone. A crevasse is suddenly beneath me. Terror grips my gut, and I twist around, trying to reach for the ledge, but it’s too late. I’m already out of reach. 

I summon the Crimson Aegis. 

It bursts into existence above my head, and I fling my arm to the side as it latches itself to me. The tip of the shield cracks into stone, but doesn’t anchor. Fear lances through me—then the other end of the shield strikes stone. 

I slam to a halt, the shield wedged between two walls of rock, and I’m left hanging by my arm. Pain spikes down my shoulder, but it doesn’t dislocate, and the shield doesn’t slip. I’m alive. 

My heartbeat thunders in my ears, drumming a mile a minute. Holy shit. What just happened? Where did this ravine come from? I almost died. 

The Aegis is also confused. What are we doing, dangling over a cliff? This is not the way to win fights!

Quell appears above me. “Nye! Nye, are you okay?”

“Hanging in there,” I grunt. 

“Now’s not the time for jokes,” he cries. 

“What?” It doesn’t matter. “Quick, help me up. I could slip any second.”

Quell leans over the edge, stretching a hand down. 

“No!” I cry, horrified. If I grabbed him at this angle, I’d just pull him over the cliff. “Go get Poppy! Throw me her reins.”

“Oh,” Quell says, a little embarrassed. “Right. Of course.”

He disappears for a moment, and I clench my arm, attempting a one-armed pull-up to alleviate the strain the posture is pulling through my back. I’m suddenly very glad my shield is of the demonic variety; I wouldn’t have been able to instantaneously strap myself into a conventional one, and its arm band certainly wouldn’t have withheld this kind of wear and tear. 

The Aegis scoffs. Of course I should be glad! It is the best shield in all of existence. Surely this should have been apparent by now. 

I huff out a laugh, but it becomes a wince. 

Quell returns a moment later, getting Poppy to lean her head down and dropping the rein into the ravine. I grab it with my freehand, looping it around my wrist several times. 

“Alright,” I grunt. “Back her up!”

Quell does, and the leather goes taught. I pull with all my might as the drake strains to back up. The Aegis scrapes across the stone, slipping free of its brace, as I’m pulled up and over the edge. Once I’m back on solid ground, I crawl a few feet from the edge, then collapse onto my back, spread-eagle. Even with the wind and sand biting into my flesh, the ground has never felt so good. The rush of adrenaline in my ears gradually fades. 

Quell leans over me. “What was that about sticking together?”

“I saw my brother,” I say. “He was in the storm.”

“Why would he be out here?” Quell demands. “For him to be this close now, we would have seen him way before the storm reached us.”

I frown. “But I’m sure it was him.”

“You’re seeing what you want to see,” Quell says, his face softening with pity. “Just like me and Liz.”

I sigh. I know he’s probably right. It would have been a miracle to run into Álvaro out here. But I’m so certain it was him. It had been too detailed to just be a trick of the light. 

Either way, it doesn’t change what needs to be done. I clench my teeth—which grinds sand between my molars. I turn and spit. Against all my instincts, we need to keep moving. 

I keep the Aegis out as I roll to my feet, examining the ravine. It’s obvious now that I’m looking at it—I’d been so distracted by the figmanet of Álvaro that I hadn’t even noticed the giant gap in the ground. Or perhaps the sand had obscured it. Either way, it’s clear we’ll need to be more careful about where we walk from now on. 

“You keep an eye out for signs of the others,” I tell him, not trusting myself to search for figures in the sand. “I’ll keep an eye on our footpath. Alright?”

“Alright,” Quell agrees. We both take a side of Poppy’s reins as we circle away from the cliff. “But, Nye, there’s something unnatural about all this.”

“Xamireb said the same thing,” I say. “It’s magical.”

“Yes, but magical how?” Quell wonders. “I can feel the magic in the air. But the Oasis spills life magic. How can a sandstorm be alive?” He shakes his head. “I think there’s a beast at the center of this, and it’s using the storm for cover. It strikes from our blindspots, and reveals just enough to lure us into danger.”

Like an anglerfish. Is that what I’d seen? It would make sense with what we’ve experienced so far, for the most part. 

“No more chasing shadows,” I agree. “In fact, if you see any, we probably should head in the opposite direction.” 

“Good point,” Quell says. “I’m not sure I want to know where it’s trying to actually direct us.”

“And with any luck, we don’t have to find out.” 

I keep my eyes on the path in front of us as we walk. It’s only now sinking in how close I’d come to dying. If I want to find my brother, I need to be more careful. I can’t let my emotions control me like that. If I throw myself blindly into every situation I find myself in, eventually I’ll meet my match. And I can’t help anyone if I’m dead. Next time, I—

[Role Requirement,] Echo warns. 

I grab the back of Quell’s shirt right as he begins to pitch forward, letting out a yelp. His foot appears to pass straight through the ground, and the slack in his shirt goes tight. I dig in my heels and yank him backward. Both of us fall back against Poppy as the sand before us slips away, revealing another ravine. The lizard gives a startled chirp.

“What was that!” Quell cries. “Where did it come from? How did we miss it?”

“I don’t know,” I admit. “I was watching the ground. It wasn’t there before. It looked like your foot went right through the ground, like it wasn’t even there.”

“What?” Quell spins to look at me, then looks back at the cliff ledge, only feet away. “Hold on. Let me just…” He frowns, focusing on something ahead of us. Then his eyes go wide. “Of course. Oh, gods, Nye, you’re going to think me such a fool!”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” I say. 

Quell stands up, and I cautiously follow suit, eyeing the nearby ledge. He’s too close for my liking. I decide not to let go of his cloak, just in case. 

Quell takes a steadying breath, closing his eyes. Then he raises his hands like an orchestra conductor, and an ethereal purple light licks around his fingers. He snaps his palms outward, exhaling a breath in the same moment, and a pulse of magic spreads from him in every direction. As it does, reality ripples. 

The sandstorm shimmers. The ground ungulates like the surface of a trampoline. Overhead, moonlight breaks through the storm. Then, all at once, the illusion shatters. 

It’s like someone’s removed a pane of distorted glass from before my face. Large sections of ground fizzle away; the wind still swirls around us, sand still stinging our skin, but it’s no longer obscuring our sight. We’re standing on a rocky plateau, surrounded by snaking canyons. 

Quell opens his eyes, then lets out a little squeal and backpedals from the cliff’s edge. I stare around in awe. 

“It was all an illusion?” I ask. 

“Mostly,” he says. “The sandstorm is real, though the illusion made it seem much worse than it was. Illusions aren’t just visual, but can be audial as well, and the really strong ones can have a slight tactile element. Gods, would you look at all these gorges! We’re lucky we didn’t fall in.”

I carefully edge up to the side of the cliff, peering over. “I don’t think luck was any part of it.”

“What do you mean?” he asks.

There’s bones at the bottom of the cliff. White sticks and boulders scattered all across the canyon floor. “I think this is where the illusions were trying to lure us.” 

“It wasn’t a monster,” Quell realizes. “When Darian and Liz’s star drake vanished—it wasn’t snatched up by a monster, it fell off an invisible ledge. Gone in an instant.”

My stomach churns. The very same had nearly happened to Quell and I. Which means the others… I look around the plateau, and my heart sinks. We’re alone up here. 

Quell must have reached the same conclusion. “We have to find them. They can’t be far. Actually, hold on.” He climbs up on Poppy’s back and looks behind us. He squints, tracing his finger over the land. Then he takes her reins and beckons me to join him. 

“Based on the way we’ve headed, I think I know where we last lost them,” he tells me. 

I climb up behind him, mildly impressed. “That’s a good sense of direction.”

“Oh, it’s not that good,” he says, urging Poppy on. “We just went left when we lost the group, then right when you nearly got lured off a cliff, then we went straight and a bit left again after that.”

I snort. “Quell, take the compliment.”

“Oh.” He glances back at me. “I’m not really used to getting compliments. Ah. Thanks.”

“You also just dispelled a gigantic sandstorm-sized illusion,” I add. 

He huffs. “Now you’re just trying to make me uncomfortable.”

“Maybe.” I smile. 

Quell leads us back through the maze of ravines, finally pulling us over to stop. We both climb down. 

“Okay,” he says. “If I’m right, they probably fell somewhere around here.”

The image of those bones at the bottom of the cliff float to the forefront of my mind. “Maybe I should look,” I offer. “You can stay here.”

“No,” he says firmly. “Like you said: They’re going to be fine.”

He turns and cups his hands to his mouth. “Liz!”

His voice echoes back at us from several different ravines. 

“Anyone!”

We wait. His echoes die out, and my heart sinks. 

Then, distantly, we hear a returning call. “Quell! Quell, we’re here!”

He turns to me and grins, his smile as bright as the sun. Much like the sun, it warms me.